Whenever I need an image for a blog post, I immediately start looking at free stock photo sites. There aren’t too many good ones out there, but it’s worth a shot to save a little money.

If my efforts fail, I then move onto the paid, royalty-free stock photo sites, where I utilize some of my subscriptions. The only thing is that I’m a writer/hobbyist developer. Therefore, my need for photos is not nearly as thirsty as someone who actually makes money as a designer.

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Regardless, most paid stock photo sites make it difficult for designers, since you generally end up getting far too many photos for a subscription, or the on-demand plans drain your wallet.

Most stock photo companies don’t have that in-between plan with reasonable monthly rates for maybe a few dozen photos per month.

Until now.

The Depositphotos.com website recently came out with a Flexible Plan, which is far more suitable for mid-sized companies and designers.

The company seems to have talked to some of its customers to understand what they are looking for, and I’m certain they discovered a group of users who are unsatisfied with the current price offerings of most stock image sites.

Therefore, keep reading to learn a little more about the new Flexible Plan, along with which industries and companies might find it useful.

How does the New, Flexible Pricing Help Designers?

Here’s the deal: The Flexible Plan from Depositphotos.com goes for $29 per month. With that, you gain access to 30 high-resolution photos, all of which you can immediately download at any size or resolution.

In addition, you don’t have to utilize all of your downloads each month. So, if you have a slow month and leave five or ten of the images undownloaded, these roll over to the next month, saving you even more money.

Since some folks might go over the 30 image limit, the charge for going over is $1 per photo. This is far better than most on-demand plans in the industry, and you still receive access to the same library of over 50 million royalty-free options.

Furthermore, the Depositphotos.com library includes other items like vectors and videos. All of the photos and videos on the site have no expiration date, so you can log into your account and find your past purchases in case you need to download them again.

Oh yeah, and if you decide to pay for an entire year upfront, you save $49 overall.

How Does This Compare to the Other Plans?

Here’s where the true benefits come into view. The on-demand pricing starts at $99 for 25 images. On the other end of the spectrum you can choose a monthly subscription for $69 (giving you 75 images). Those are the lowest priced plans in those categories.

It’s easy to see that many designers and brands might not like this setup, considering a regular freelance designer might not ever use more than 30 images per month. On the other hand, you end up paying an insane amount of money per image if you go the on-demand route.

That’s why $29 per month for 30 images makes more sense. Heck, when you compare this to the $99 for 25 on-demand images, it’s pretty much a no-brainer.

Does the Depositphotos.com Library Have Worthwhile Photos and Videos?

As we talked about above, the Depositphotos.com site provides over 50 million images, vectors and videos. This is a solid selection, but what do the images actually look like?

After all, I’ve seen some huge libraries, but sometimes the stock images seem outdated-looking or corny.

However, that’s not the case with Depositphotos.com. I made a few simple searches for keywords like “office,” “tree,” “camping,” and “party.” The results were relevant, and I would be more than happy to use most of them for blog posts, ecommerce promotional banners, slider images and more.

Although I’m not as experienced with vectors and videos, these collections seem intriguing as well.

One of the things I noticed was that Depositphotos.com provides lists of popular searches, along with categories and collections. this way, designers can go in there to view pertinent collections, like for holidays and such.

Some Standout Features

My favorite part of the Depositphotos.com interface has to be the ability to Favorite certain photos for later use. An account must be created for this, but you can list and categorize your favorite images, just in case you’re preparing for a project into the future.

The lightbox preview of each image lets you share the item with friends. Not to mention, it displays a wonderful view of the image for seeing if you actually want to buy it.

It’s also nice that you receive an incredible amount of picture information from each option. For example, you can look at related photos for each one, while also searching for similar photos with the same models in them. The resolutions, sizes and formats are mentioned in the lightbox as well, along with a large Download button for when you’re ready to buy.

Finally, you do have the ability to create folders and share them with people in your organization. For example, a design company might have a group of people working on an email marketing campaign. If that’s the case, they’ll need to select certain photos to break up the text.

Instead of opening a Google Drive file, you can keep all of the photos on the Depositphotos website for quick and easy viewing. That’s all there is to it.

Who Should Consider Signing Up For The Depositphotos.com Flexible Plan?

I really like the Depositphotos.com Flexible plan for medium-sized companies and designers. Some bloggers might find it reasonable for their budgets as well.

The only reason I would go with a monthly plan is if my photo usage was far higher than 30 images per month. The on-demand plan doesn’t make any sense to me unless you’re only grabbing less than a handful of items per month.

Feel free to try out the new plan here, and let us know in the comments section if you have any thoughts about Depositphotos.com in general.